MPVS- (Melanin Pigment Variant Syndrome)

+3 Bonus Skill Points, PER

During the Pan-Asian War, Bio-Warfare reached a new level of evil, untold millions died, as each side upped the ante on lethality, no longer concerning themselves with military targets, the rival nation's civilian populations became prime targets. One strain of virus in particular was truly nasty, The Phage; a highly contagious engineered form of Staphylococcus that literally ate away the victims flesh in a matter of weeks. Scientists struggled to develop a vaccine, and miraculously were successful, but in the rush to administer it, there were unforeseen complications....

A generation later, many of the children of those vaccinated were born with a bluish tint to there skin! Only those of an Arabic genetic background suffered this defect. It took some time for the world's scientist's to discover the connection. The vaccine had somehow interacted with the DNA of certain people and modified the Melanin pigmentation codes...It could skip a generation or two, never manifest at all, or show up in every generation... Other than appearance changes the only other physical disadvantage was the slightly increased chance of a sunburn ( turns a darker blue when sun-burned), about the equivalent of a caucasian's sun-burn chances. However to many this change in skin color was a horrible condition. They became labeled "Caddies" due to their superficial resemblance to cadavers. This is a common term used to describe them today & they consider it the equivalent of a racial slur! Still primarily a condition of those of Arabic descent, though with interracial marriages/relationships people of mixed heritage have manifested the Syndrome.

I got the idea for this from an old comic "Io". Done by Barbed Wire Halo Studios. One of the characters in the book "Caddie" from India had the disease. Though they never explained what it was all about, I just kinda made the rest up.

Io was interesting, the Soviets were fighting the Allies for control of the Terra-Formed Jupiter's moon Io.

In the Alternity rules I was thinking about letting this be the equivalent of the Poor Looks Flaw . Many people would consider a blue human to be a mutant or even think they had a disease or something.